Individuals (here referred to as “customers”) who want to purchase certain goods and/or services (referred to in this document collectively as “products”) face a bewildering range of options. This is particularly the case for a customer who is travelling to an unfamiliar destination, or who has recently changed address to a new locality, and who has to select providers of products (here referred to as “merchants”) in that locality or destination. Nowadays, such a customer can search online using a search engine for places to stay (hotel bookings), places to visit (attractions), dining options (e.g. restaurants), and car rental options, but picking appropriate merchants from the potentially thousands on offer soon becomes a tedious task. Some customers rely on online reviews left by previous purchasers of the products, but for some providers reviews are not available, are not reliable, or reflect the views of individuals very different from the customer doing the search.
A particular problem is that often many merchants are inappropriate for the customer's preferences (e.g. their prices are outside a range of prices which the customer is prepared to pay) even if they are suitable for other customers. It can take the customer considerable time to discover this. This is particularly true if a given merchant does not publish its tariff online, and/or if the merchant has a complex system of special offers which mean that the actual price the customer would be charged is different from what the standard tariff would suggest.